On December 27, 2006, I, M. B. Khodorkovsky, was given two documents relating to the preliminary investigation of criminal case No. 18/41-03 which make it clear that it is being carried out by an investigative team from the office of the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation consisting of seventeen individuals and headed by the senior investigator for especially important cases, S. K. Karimov. Mr. Karimov is the same top-ranking official who headed a similar team in the earlier criminal case brought against me and Platon Lebedev, and who on that occasion filed baseless charges against us.

Everyone - above all the members of the investigative team - was well aware of this during our trial, which resulted in an eight-year sentence imposed on each of us, even though I, for my part, remained convinced up till the last minute that the verdict would be a fair one.

In the course of the preliminary investigation, during both the trial and the subsequent appeal, I actively assisted in the judicial process, including by giving objective proofs of my own and Lebedev’s innocence. The judges, for all this, simply copied out the indictment previously signed by Mr. S.K.Karimov and repeated all the gross legal and even grammatical errors it contained.

In December 2004, whilst the case was still being considered by the Meshchansky Court, moreover, I was notified that the Prosecutor General’s office of the Russian Federation was intending to file a further criminal charge for money-laundering; and ever since that time responsible officers in the Prosecutor General’s office have issued regular reminders of the fact that in the near future I and Platon Lebedev would be faced with new charges - not only after the verdict had been passed, but also at subsequent stages of the original case’s consideration. They were clearly deliberately issued with one sole aim - to create a negative public perception, not only of Platon Lebedev and me personally, but also of our entire careers. These statements conveyed the idea that the Prosecutor's office either had enough evidence of our guilt already or was still collecting evidence of it, though thus far no charges had been filed.

Certain high-ranking officers in the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, it should be noted in this connection, are very concerned with the fact that half of the sentence imposed on me and Platon Lebedev will have expired during the coming year and that in theory, at any rate, we might be released early. They are well aware, furthermore, that elections to the State Duma will be held in 2007, and the election of the President of the Russian Federation in March 2008 - and that my release, therefore, could not be countenanced at such a time. That is why they have decided to do everything they can to keep me behind bars as long as possible.

My imprisonment in the colony could of course have been extended in another, ‘more humane’ manner, so as to prevent my early release until the end of the election-cycle. It could have been done very simply by imposing new penalties for disciplinary violations allegedly committed by me.

The authorities, however, have decided that this alternative is unreliable - while the filing of new charges, the initiation of a new trial and the imposition of a new sentence will considerably ease for the Kremlin its so-called ‘2007 Problem’: my and Platon’s early release.

Thus I have no doubt at all that the new case against me and Platon Lebedev - which we were notified about four days before the New Year - is strictly politically-motivated. The Kremlin is well aware of our political convictions, which make it perfectly clear that we have no time at all for the ‘party of the third term’.

The return of Mr. Karimov from his position as deputy-prosecutor of Bashkortostan to his ‘family’ in the Prosecutor-General’s office is also connected, no doubt, to the matter of fresh charges. It makes it paramountly clear that the Prosecutor General’s office and administrative high-ups have a ‘special trust’ in him, one which naturally doesn’t provoke any trust at all on my part.

According to the instruments which established the creation of the investigative team and which were given to me, Mr. Karimov was appointed its head on December 4, 2006; and he showed such enviable zeal that just two weeks after his appointment I was exiled to Chita to take part in the investigation of this new case.

Mr. Karimov, by the way, virtually immediately after proceedings started, described it as a ‘grave violation of the law’. (So far as I know, there’s only one charge, but I wouldn’t be surprised if others soon came to light.) Now according to article 152 of the Russian Penal Code, any preliminary investigation has to be held in the place where the crime was committed. The investigation in our case should, then, be conducted in Moscow, whereas Platon Lebedev and I have been removed, not to Moscow, but to the pretrial detention-facility in Chita - where, judging by appearances, they mean to keep me incarcerated for as long as possible.

I have no doubt that the new trial will prove the same sort of travesty as the last one, the same sort of travesty as the criminal cases brought against other Yukos employees, particularly that against Svetlana Bakhmina, the mother of two young children. I think it indecent to participate for a second time in this sort of travesty. I have already refused to give evidence as a ‘suspect’, since I see no point in proving anything to people who are charged, not with the task of assisting justice through the establishment of the truth, but with its exact opposite.

I do not know personally all the members of the investigative team, but I believe it possible that among them there are decent and professional people, capable of conscientiously doing their duty. In my case, though, sadly, all of them, including their team-head S. K. Karimov, are doomed to being obedient carriers-out of a political diktat. I cannot, therefore, rationally rely on their professional loyalty to principles.

The fact is, I have no confidence of any kind in the Russian Prosecutor-General’s office as a whole, but I cannot legally challenge each and every individual in it. In any case, it’s not about personalities, it’s about the system.

Since the very first days after my arrest, I’ve said that I want to succeed in achieving justice in Russia - and only in Russia. I have no doubt that the day will come when the baselessness of all the charges against me, both old and new, will be proved - though it won’t come as soon as I’d like it to.

In connection with the above, then, I hereby challenge the entire investigative team of the Prosecutor General’s office of the Russian Federation which is currently investigating criminal case No. 18/41-03, and the composition of which was announced to me on December 27, 2006.